We dedicate this live album to our brother Chester who poured his heart and soul into One More Light. After we finished recording the album, we joked with Chester that—since he had delivered so many stunning performances in the studio—he had set the bar extra high to produce that alchemy on stage each night. Not surprisingly, he welcomed the challenge.

The shows we played together during the early summer of 2017 were extraordinary. Chester shared with us that he felt this was the best tour we had ever done. The camaraderie and joy we experienced on stage reflected our deep connection with each other, with our fans, and with the music.

Every night before walking out onto the stage, we would huddle, get focused, and share whatever last-second remarks popped into our heads. Chester always took it upon himself to turn the name of the city where we were playing into a first-rate pun. This was our ritual. Best of all, it was a moment to express our gratitude that we were living our dream.

Chester never forgot to express his appreciation to our crew—the men and women who traveled the world with us, making our dream into reality night after night. Without them, these shows would not have been possible.

Chester was uniquely passionate, uncommonly generous, sensitive, optimistic, funny, and kind. With his voice, he turned pain into catharsis, authenticity into art, and passion into connection. His dedication to bringing these songs to life was triumphant. For those of you who attended this tour in person, we thank you. For those who could not, we hope this live album gives you a glimpse into how magical these shows were for the six of us.

Hey. Morgan from Metal Riot/Walking Bombs here with a cover song for you today. I want to thank you all for your own lives, for the ways you enrichen mine and for the times we can manage to remember one another’s goodness after distance grows.

In a time when the most toxic and defensive people attack others as “triggered snowflakes” while pushing for the same old same old white supremacy and kleptocratic patriarchy under the extremely fake guise of “shaking up the system”, when unrepentant and hurtful people with no desire to truly communicate gaslight society (remember kids- saying nazis are actually socialist is like saying GOP is still the party of Lincoln), when civil rights are threatened, when love is laughed at but the hard choice of physical resistance to violent fascism is also condemned, sensitive artists and souls or people with PTSD can really struggle. When we do make mistakes it is even harder to forgive ourselves. The waters are churning too much, like a blender that never shuts off and has no lid but somehow you are expected to keep the contents inside when everyone else is rewarded for being unplugged or complacent, even as they have no current flowing through their hearts.

Anyway, I wanted to send love to Scott from Neurosis, especially Sinead O’Connor and others alive and still with us trying to bravely battle stigma and depression in this climate. Or activists like Bree Newsome or Talib Kweli who put so much out there on the front lines of activism every day. Or people who were too exhausted to go on like Chester or Chris or Scott Weiland or any of the greats we have lost. Even Prince or MJ who gave so much but had a curated existence just to function on the cosmic frequency they did.

I love people but have a hard time with crowds anymore. Not to say I am an empath, necessarily…but when you have had bad experiences and are suspicious or scan for danger to survive or have had trust completely broken, when you sabotage yourself….your spider sense is often tingling. I love people but it can be so draining. And I need a lot of alone time society doesn’t always allow for unless you really have cash. Even monitoring it is easy to spiral for some of us.

I went today to a place I almost took my own life a few years ago. I wanted to send some light and loving energy out from that spot to remind how crucial communication (when possible) and room for healing are. I have a long semi-coherent intro, but I covered Sinead’s bittersweet “Last Day Of Our Acquaintance” for anyone who has had relationships or friendships or their own personal aura clouded by struggles with depression. I have so much respect for people like Hether Fortune who talks online sometimes about the benefits of therapy or Christopher Stroop who is doing #emptythepews work to combat Evangelical societal abuse or other artists who try to stay engaged with social issues even when it is very taxing. I do it myself so much I exhaust myself and it is so important to also practice self care, especially for artists as well who often feel we have to be raw or on edge to be AUTHENTIC. Sometimes it is enough to function, honeys.

And as for forgiveness, some relationships don’t get fixed. Or sometimes in wider society we have situations, like with emboldened hate groups in the streets- where the option of forgiveness has to be in God’s hands because if you don’t act the motherfuckers will run over a girl or some kind of actual catastrophe will arise, but other times in this life a gentle word or listening CAN sometimes turn the tide.

May the road rise to meet all (er, most) of you. We have some healthy if not always easy discussions about what is problematic and what is helpful or good to keep alive in our scene right now. While I hope we can allow room for expression I also hope it is not just for the sake of itself and we can keep things actually growing productively, whether towards healing through art, helping one another with some hardcore scene style positive encouragement or trying on one another’s shoes wherever situations still allow safe room to do so.

And some people will give up on you, but you can’t give up on yourself. Actually, scratch that…you aren’t always bad just because you perhaps break after all.

Went a place I almost took my life few years back (I had wanted to die where I had good memories even though I was so low). Here is A cover song and thoughts on depression and thanks / prayers and best wishes for Scott Kelly, Supporting Sinéad Oconnor , Chris Cornell, Linkin Park and various lost lives and lovers. Xo. Do your best, darlings.

I’ve been on Linkin Park‘s fan club mailing list a long time now and they always treat the fans very well over there. Today they collectively eased a small amount of a lot of sorrow by sharing a heartfelt memorial letter for vocalist and friend Chester Bennington, who died by suicide last week.

Dear Chester,

Our hearts are broken. The shockwaves of grief and denial are still sweeping through our family as we come to grips with what has happened.

You touched so many lives, maybe even more than you realized. In the past few days, we’ve seen an outpouring of love and support, both public and private, from around the world. Talinda and the family appreciate it, and want the world to know that you were the best husband, son, and father; the family will never be whole without you.

Talking with you about the years ahead together, your excitement was infectious. Your absence leaves a void that can never be filled—a boisterous, funny, ambitious, creative, kind, generous voice in the room is missing. We’re trying to remind ourselves that the demons who took you away from us were always part of the deal. After all, it was the way you sang about those demons that made everyone fall in love with you in the first place. You fearlessly put them on display, and in doing so, brought us together and taught us to be more human. You had the biggest heart, and managed to wear it on your sleeve.

Our love for making and performing music is inextinguishable. While we don’t know what path our future may take, we know that each of our lives was made better by you. Thank you for that gift. We love you, and miss you so much.

Chester Bennington has died at the age of 41. The cause of death is currently being reported as a suicide. This news comes just over two months after news broke that Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell had committed suicide.

Chester was the lead singer of Linkin Park and Dead by Sunrise (and released an EP with Stone Temple Pilots).

I’ve been a Linkin Park fan for a decade. I, like many people my age, started listening to them in middle and high school. By the time I was a freshman in high school my three favorite albums by Linkin Park had already been released. The summer after my sophomore year of high school I listened to “We Made It” incessantly.

Unlike with some other bands and musicians I like and listen to, I don’t know anything about the personal life of Chester or any of the members of Linkin Park, save for what I’ve learned listening to their music. What I do know is that despite the people who mocked me for liking Linkin Park’s music, it helped me at some of the toughest and angstiest moments of my life. First introduced to the band via a mix CD my cousin had, I eventually went out and bought Meteora, Hybrid Theory and Minutes to Midnight.

When I was 14, 15, 16 years old and the world felt like shit, and my life felt like shit, and I lived in the middle of nowhere and it didn’t often feel like I had much more than the hand-me-down 5-CD changer on my dresser, I could put on an album like Hybrid Theory and either turn it up to speaker-busting volumes and just thrash as hard as I could, or turn it down and lay in bed and let Chester’s voice wash over me.

The music that Chester made with Linkin Park was music that made a difference for my mental health. That still does make a difference for my mental health. Listening to songs like “One Step Closer,” “Crawling,” and “A Place For My Head” showed me that it’s okay to struggle, that it’s okay to be frustrated, it’s okay to be unsure of yourself, it’s okay to stumble. I would listen to “A Place For My Head” and wait for Chester to start, real low and quiet, to sing, “You try to take the best of me // Go away” and I would think about the people who had outed me in middle school, I thought about the people who called me a faggot, I thought about the kids who would ask me on the bus if I was a boy or a girl, and through Chester, I would yell at them to go away, without ever opening my mouth.

There’s always been a lot of fun to be had at the expense of Linkin Park fans, as if the band appealed to some kind of lowest common denominator. The truth is that there is an ignorance around mental health. There is an ignorance around the depression and anxiety that Linkin Park fans attempted to treat with their copies of their favorite Linkin Park albums. There is an ignorance of the depression that Chester tried to treat with every word he sang or screamed.

Hybrid Theory sold 30 million copies. 30 million people related to the struggles that Chester and co. were expressing on that album and in 17 years our conversations about mental health have been regrettably sparse. Unless someone kills themselves or someone else, we seem content to not talk about mental health. As long as the people around us seem fine when they’re around us, we seem content to not talk about mental health. As long as it doesn’t affect us, we seem content to not not talk about mental health.

As someone who has lived with a diagnosis of depression for ten years and who also has anxiety and gender dysphoria, I have always tried to speak openly and honestly about my mental health, and I’ve always waited for the communities around me to talk about it.

For us here at Metal Riot, our thoughts are with Chester’s family and friends today. Chester’s impact will not be forgotten, and hopefully we can honor his memory by striving to always be as open and candid as he was in his music.

If you or a loved one is considering suicide, please call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Stadium shaking head movers Linkin Park have announced they are giving away Hybrid Theory for a limited time with Google Play in thanks to fans.

Our first album, Hybrid Theory, was made with all the love, passion, and naïveté that an artist can give to their first recordings. We are humbled and grateful that it has been embraced so widely, and we still find it hard to believe it became the biggest selling rock album of the century. As a thank you to our fans, we’ve partnered with Google Play to give you Hybrid Theory for free. –Linkin Park

Linkin Park‘s recent The Hunting Party is by far one of their better and more bold releases (up there with Meteora for moment after attention grabbing moment). There are earmarks of every era of their sound but a willingness to push themselves on tracks like “Rebellion” (with D. Malakian from System Of A Down) or the surprisingly heavy “The Keys To The Kingdom” that opens the record with a serious punk roar and drums infused into their alt rock/nu-metal sound. This album is a lot of fun if you can get your heads out of your snobby butts for a minute and admit it rules. The percussive twists and turns alone shows their “hybrid theory” of stadium alt rock and hip hop fusion still has staying power and room to evolve. Shit, I’m also just glad I have a record in my library that has both Rakim and Page Hamilton on it.

Just in time for the holidays, the Google Play store is having a special Linkin Park sale. Get The Hunting Party FREE now for a limited time. You can also purchase other Linkin Park albums for only $1.99 each. Get your albums now at: http://bit.ly/1zt969H

Mall, the debut feature film by Joe Hahn of Linkin Park, will appear in theaters nationwide starting this Friday, October 17th. Co-starring Vincent Donofrio (who pulls triple duty as star/producer/screenwriter), Gina Gershon (Killer Joe), Cameron Monaghan (TVs Shameless), Mall examines a group of disgruntled suburbanites who find themselves at a shopping mall in the midst of a seemingly random shooting. The film will also be made available for purchase through www.mallthemovie.com on the same day of its theatrical release via Paragon Pictures in association with Silver Lining Entertainment.

As a member of the multi-platinum Grammy-winning rock band, Hahn is responsible for the beats, programming and keyboard heard in Linkin Park. He has also directed as many as 30 of the bands ground-breaking music videos, and over a dozen short films and music videos for other musical acts. Now Hahn is making his full feature directorial debut with Mall, featuring a script adapted from Eric Bogosians 2001 novel of the same name by DOnofrio, Joe Vinciguerra, and Sam Bisbee. “I find it refreshing to see this kind of point-of-view in contrast to today’s society that interacts digitally”, Hahn recently explained to Mashable. “When I read this script, it felt real and refreshing to show how ugly people can be as they hide their inner beasts after cracking their facades.”

Billboard recently premiered an exclusive teaser clip from Mall, which can be viewed here:

Earlier this summer, Paragon Pictures, led by Evan Crooke, picked up the North American rights to Mall. As the theatrical distribution division of Osiris Entertainment , Paragon Pictures will release Mall nationwide. More information about Mall can be found through Facebook.com/MallMovie and Twitter at @MallMovie.

Tampa, FL’s I Kept Silent might be baby faced, but they rock in a major way. The passion and actually decent songwriting of their 2013 debut EP Precession Of The Voyager deserves to be heard by a lot more people. Gene Simmons just declared rock dead and also recently said poor people never gave him a job. 1.) while trends come and go, hard rock and metal will always be there even if it doesn’t have the market share it once did. I Kept Silent are just one example of many bands who will keep it alive. 2.) Poor people bought all your albums, Gene. I love Kiss, but don’t forget the streets.

Tangent aside, I wanted to give IKS some shine while they are in a rebuilding phase, so I hit the band up and asked the Tempfer brothers Ryan and Andre about some of their biggest influences and best moments in the band so far (hint – they’ve already shared festivals with Alice In Chains and Rob Zombie).

Hey hard rock fans…Mark Pellington has directed a very cinematic new video for Linkin Park for their song “Final Masquerade”. It is one of those all Chester type ballad vocal songs without Shinoda dropping in. This one has some life in it and a catchy melody. Check it out at MTV HERE.

The plot seems to be that a baby werewolf or changeling (I am guessing that from the “no shape shifters” graffiti) gets reunited with family after a Courtney Love angel saves it and the band jump around a lot pretending to be screaming while Chester is actually singing a pretty melody. Not knockin’ it, as I am a fan. But that seems to be what is going on. Guessing the masquerade is that they are no longer going to hide.

I’m pissed I had to wait through a Neutrogena commercial to watch the video, but the song was enjoyable if not their best track on The Hunting Party (which is a really solid album from the chart toppers).

In other news, LP beat maker/programmer Joe Hahn has a movie coming out, his directorial feature film debut Mall. The film Mall boasts a cast starring Vincent Donofrio (who pulls triple duty as star/producer/screenwriter), Gina Gershon (Killer Joe), Cameron Monaghan (TVs Shameless), Peter Stormare (Fargo) and James Frecheville (Animal Kingdom). Seen through the eyes of Jeff (played by Monaghan), the film examines a group of disgruntled suburbanites who find themselves at a shopping mall in the midst of a seemingly random shooting, and whose lives are positively transformed as a result.

Earlier this summer, Paragon Pictures, led by Evan Crooke, picked up the North American rights to Mall. As the theatrical distribution division of Osiris Entertainment, Paragon Pictures is planning to release Mall nationwide this fall following Linkin Parks massive Carnivores Tour, kicking off on August 8 in West Palm Beach, FL.

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